Kids playing with water led to a hazardous chemical
scare in a Woonsocket neighborhood Sunday afternoon, firefighters
said.

Residents of a Grove Street
home said they noticed a strong smell of ammonia coming from the
basement around 3:00 p.m. Taronda Robinson, who called 911, said the
odor was overpowering.

"You couldn't stand it,"
Robinson said. "You had to go back upstairs and get fresh
air."

Firefighters said they found
a smoking 7-gallon barrel of sodium hydroxide in the basement. They
evacuated the three-story home and two others nearby, and shut down
Grove Street.

Sodium hydroxide is commonly
used to clear drains, and reacts strongly with water.

Investigators determined water dripped into the
barrel while a group of kids were having a water gun fight in the
basement.

Hazmat crews said the heat
from the reaction melted the lining inside the barrel, which generated
the pungent smell. They said it could have gotten hot enough to start a
fire.

us_tn: Train Derails near south Broad
Street

A CSX train passing through
Chattanooga jumped off its track around 4:30 this afternoon near the
3200 block of Broad Street.

Battalion Chief Rick Sewell said that several fire companies
responded to the scene, along with the haz-mat team, since trains often
carry large loads of hazardous materials. In this case, CSX officials
said most of the rail cars were empty. However, one car was loaded with
Ferrous Sulfate, which CSX personnel said was used as a
fertilizer.

Chief Sewell said the car
carrying the fertilizer was damaged in the wreck and about 100 pounds of
the pelletized material spilled onto the ground. Concerned that the
spilled material could contaminate Chattanooga Creek, which is located
nearby, an environmental cleanup company was brought in to clean up the
spill. Chief Sewell said the rail car will have to be off-loaded before
it can be moved back on the track.

us_ok: Possible Meth Lab Sparks Tulsa Motel 6
Fire

TULSA, OK -- Tulsa Police
are investigating a possible meth lab fire that caused the evacuation of
the Motel 6 at 1011 South Garnett Road at about 3:40 a.m.
Sunday.

Tulsa Fire extinguished the
blaze after finding heavy smoke coming from Room 248. They found
evidence of a possible meth lab and called in police and Hazmat
crews.

One man had been seen running
from the scene. Tulsa Police caught and questioned him. Several other
people in the room were questioned.

One man
reported breathing difficulties and was transported to a local hospital.
Damage to the hotel is estimated at $25,000.

uk: Man is treated for chemical face burns at Wrexham
firm

A man was taken to hospital
with chemical burns to his face after an incident on an industrial
estate.

North Wales fire service say
four crews, the specialist response unit and an environmental protection
unit were called to a unit on Wrexham Industrial Estate at around 2200
BST on Friday.

The man was taken to Wrexham
Maelor Hospital in an ambulance service rapid response
car.

His injuries were not
thought to be serious.

Firefighters closed down the section of the unit at Cytec
Engineered Materials and wore specialist gas-tight suits to clean up the
chemicals involved.

LAKEWOOD,
Wash. -- Three firefighters and one other person were taken to the
hospital after being exposed to a chemical cloud created by a mix of
cleaning solutions at a Lakewood building.

A custodian at the Lakewood Professional Center was
mixing cleaning solutions which somehow created a chemical cloud that
set off the building=E2=80=99s smoke detectors.

When the Lakewood Fire Department responded to the
building in the 7500 block of Lakewood Drive, three firefighters and a
woman cleaning the building began to feel eye irritation and
nausea.

The crew left the building
and the four people were taken to a local hospital as a precaution. All
were OK and were later discharged.

A
Department of Ecology spill response team worked for four hours at the
building and is gathering the chemicals for disposal.

india: Fire in chemical shops, three hurt

A major fire broke out in some chemical shops in the
old city area on Friday morning, damaging goods worth several lakhs and
left three injured. The fire, which broke out in a chemical shop
situated in the busy Trunck Bazaar area, spread to the third floor of
the building and soon engulfed adjacent shops within
seconds.

The flames emanating from the
highly inflammable material and chemicals were so strong that a dozen of
fire tenders failed to douse it.

...

Eyewitnesses said the fire
broke out around 10.15 am, when an employee was mixing two chemicals,
which led to an explosion. Two workers were badly injured while one
received minor burns.

Residents said
minor fires were a common feature in the area, but today=E2=80=99s
incident has raised some serious questions, such as why the authorities
allowed the shop-owners to store highly inflammable material in
congested areas.

us_tx: Regional Roundup for
5-21

Crews tackle
chemical spill; city unsatisfied

Crews worked Thursday to finish cleaning a spill of
the industrial solvent xylene, a day after the chemical seeped out of a
truck in northern Richardson.

City
officials believe that Thursday's rain diluted the chemical and that it
posed no threat to residents.

The
chemical began seeping after a container fell over inside a truck
Wednesday in the 2500 block of Custer Parkway, near Lookout Drive. It
dripped for about a mile to a parking lot at the southeast corner of
Custer and Renner Road. The driver notified his trucking company, and a
cleanup company was called.

But on
Thursday, city officials said the job was incomplete. City spokesman
Greg Sowell said the cleanup company would be cited.

The Wagner College
graduation ceremony up Howard Avenue while the response was at its
height. The combination of emergency vehicles and graduation traffic
caused heavy delays in the area. Traffic control agents were needed to
assist.

us_pa: Pool Shock Mix Causes Chemical
Explosion In West Mifflin

EST
MIFFLIN, Pa. --

A homeowner who was preparing his pool for swimmers
had a few unexpected guests on Thursday morning.

Hazmat crews were called to the man's
home in the 5000 block of Homeville Road shortly before 8:30
a.m.

The homeowner told Channel 4
Action News he was mixing chlorine in his laundry room sink to shock his
pool.

The man said he believes the
mixture overflowed into a second sink, which had something in it that
caused a chemical reaction and a "bang."

"I backed away and then the bucket exploded with the
chlorine in it. It reacted with the soap and the chlorine is what the
hazmat guy told me," said Rege Fath.

Hazardous
materials crews were called because of the chemicals.

There were no reports of any injuries, but Fath did
say his hearing was affected by the sound of the
explosion.

us_ca: Worker injured in explosion at
Pasadena chemical company

PASADENA
- A worker west to the hospital with minor injuries Wednesday after an
oven explosion at a chemical manufacturing plant, authorities
said.

The
worker, a man in his 20s, suffered minor burns and possible inhalation
injuries, she said.

A small explosion and fire
had occurred in one of the company's processing ovens, Derderian said.
The fire was out when firefighters arrived, but the building remained
full of smoke.

Because the explosion was an
industrial accident, she added, Cal/OSHA was summoned to investigate the
cause.

Derderian said the fire
remained contained to the oven and caused about $7,000 worth of
damage.

us_tx: UPDATE 2-Lyondell to halve Houston
refinery runs for a month|

HOUSTON,
May 20 (Reuters) - LyondellBasell [ACCELC.UL] said on Thursday crude oil
refining at its 268,000 barrel per day (bpd) Houston refinery would be
cut in half for about four weeks while damage from a Monday fire is
repaired.

The company also said the
restart of a crude distillation unit unaffected by the fire was on
schedule.

"We remain on schedule to
have that unit on line by the end of the week," said Lyondell spokesman
David Harpole on Thursday.

The Monday
afternoon fire broke out in the second CDU at the refinery. The two CDUs
perform the initial refining of crude oil coming into the refinery. Each
CDU accounts for about half of the refinery's crude refining capacity of
268,000 bpd.

No injuries were reported in
the fire, which burned for about an hour before being extinguished by
Lyondell firefighters.

us_al: Fire, Chemical Spill At Masland Carpets

A Wednesday night fire at Masland Carpets in Atmore
and a chemical spill were quickly contained.

The fire was reported about 9:30 p.m and was quickly
extinguished by the Atmore Fire Department. A potential hazardous
materials situation was turned over to Masland for
cleanup.

Authorities said a mishap
caused powdered bleach and a dioxide to be mixed, and the combination
spontaneously combusted.

The
entire facility was evacuated during the incident. Workers were able to
return to the building in about 45 minutes, and the overnight shift
reported to work as normal.

Neal said
a store employee cleaning bathrooms apparently mixed bleach with an
absorbent and a chemical used in recreational vehicle septic
tanks.

"It could have been
a reaction between what she mixed together that caused the problem,="
he said. "We do know that some kind of strong irritant resulted
from it.="

McDowell County
Emergency Medical Services Director William Kehler said personnel
responded to the store on U.S. 70 around 6 p.m. Tuesday following a
report of someone having difficulty breathing in the rear of the
building.

The store was immediately
evacuated and 12 people were taken to the emergency department at
McDowell County Hospital, he said.

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